Phraseology is one of the most interesting subjects of investigations in Modern linguistics. Phraseology and especially idiomaticity, was investigated in a great number of research works. The linguistic nature of idioms has been explored thoroughly nowadays. But in spite of it there still exist some aspects of idiomaticity, which have not been investigated properly. One of these is studying the words and its meaning. Lexicology is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of a language and the properties of words. The external structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to 'as the word's semantic structure. This is certainly the word's main aspect. The area of lexicology specializing in the semantic studies of the word is called semantics. Another structural aspect of the word is its unity. The word possesses both eternal unity of the word is sometimes in accurately interpreted as indivisibility.
A word is a speech unit used for purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning susceptible to grammatical employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity. The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word therefore is simultaneously semantic, grammatical, and phonological unit. So, functionally and semantically inseparable units are usually called phraseological units. The lexical component in phraseological units are stable and they are non -motivated its meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of its components allow their lexical components to be changed or substituted. In phraseological units the individual components do not seem to possess any lexical meaning outside the word group. In English and American linguistics the situation is very different. No special branch of study exists and the term “phraseology” is a stylistic one, meaning “mode of expression”, peculiarities of diction, choice and arrangement of words and phrases characteristic of some author or some literary work [1]. Phraseological units or idioms are characterized by a double sense: the current meaning of constituent words build up a certain picture, but the actual meaning of the whole unit has little or nothing to do with that picture in itself creating an entirely new image. In standard spoken and written English today idioms is an established and essential element that used with care, ornaments and enriches the language. Idiomatic usage means using words and phrases in the forms commonly used whether or not these forms appear to be the only logical ones. English — speaking people say “the lesser (not less) of two evils”,aten -foot (not feet) pole, and he is (not has) ten years old. We can say that a person eats “like a pig” to mean greedily, or “like a bird” to mean not very much, but we say that “someone has an eagle eye” to mean that he or she has excellent vision. Every utterance is a patterned, rhythmic and segmented sequence of signals. On the lexical level these signals building up the utterance are not exclusively words. Alongside with separate words speakers use larger blocks consisting of extremely variegated structurally. However, the existing terms, e.g. set phrases, idioms, word-equivalents, reflect to a certain extent the main debatable issues of phraseology which center on the divergent views concerning the nature and essential features as distinguished from the so-called free word-groups [3].
Phraseological unities are much more numerous. They are clearly motivated. The emotional quality is based upon the metaphorical image created by the whole as in to stand to one's guns, refuse to change one's statements or opinions in the face of opposition, implying courage and integrity.
Some phraseological unities reveals another characteristic of the type, namely the possibility of synonymic substitution, which can be only very limited without changing the meaning of the whole. Others are easily translated and even international. The other type, idioms, differs from phrasemes because they cannot be separated into determining context and components with phraseologically bound meaning. The new meaning, the meaning of the idiom, is created by the unit as a whole though every element keeps its usual value. There are different types of idioms from the viewpoint of the isolation of the components. Some of them contain obsolete elements not occurring elsewhere, or elements in an obsolete meaning. These idioms are never homonymous to a free phrase, and so they are completely independent of distribution: to skate on thin ice ‘to take risks’, to cudgel one’s brains ‘to make great mental efforts’. The very presence of obsolete elements ‘nick’ and ‘cudgel’ signals that the combinations are idiomatic. Other idioms can correlate with homonymous free. On the other hand the difference between phrasemes and idioms being based on semantic relationships, the approach is no less subjective than classifying them according to motivation. The classification is unable to give us the means of a consistent grouping of material. It seems altogether questionable whether it may be possible to give an objective classification without accepting the structural approach. According to the points of some linguists we define phraseological units as units of fixed context. Fixed context is defined as a context characterized by a specific and unchanging sequence of definite lexical components, and a peculiar semantic relationship between them. Units of fixed context are subdivided into phrasemes and idioms. A phraseme, also called a set expression, set phrase, idiomatic phrase, multiword expression, or idiom, is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance at least one of whose components is selectionally constrained or restricted by linguistic convention such that it is not freely chosen.
Phrasemes are always binary: one component has a phraseologically bound meaning, the other serves as the determining context (small talk, small change). In idioms the new meaning is created by the whole, though every element may have its original meaning weakened or even completely lost: in the nick of time ‘at the exact moment’. Idioms may be motivated or demotivated. A motivated idiom is homonymous to a free phrase, but this phrase is used figuratively: take the bull by the horns ‘to face dangers without fear’. Both phrasemes and idioms may be changeable or steady. That is what is meant when phrasemes and idioms to be characterised by semantic unity. In the traditional approach, such units have been defined as word-groups conveying a single concept (whereas in free word-groups each meaningful component stands for a separate concept).
Some phrasemes are stylistically neutral and in this respect are very much like the so-called «usual phrases». However, the difference between a «usual phrase» and «a phraseme» remains even when the latter is stylistically neutral. It is a contextual difference. Here is an example of a neutral phraseme: “grey hair” — old person. It is not mainly a matter of colour: the main thing is that it is an old, not a young man. At the same time it is a matter of people’s appearance but appearance characterizing old man. Below an attempt is made to distinguish neutral and stylistically colored phraseological units, by the stylistic device which motivates their meaning. As a starting point, we have taken the following approach: in many cases the meaning of its components. So it follows that some stylistic device lies at the basis of its meanings we attempted to define the basic stylistic devices, which motivate the existing meaning of the phraseological unit, and to classify them accordingly phrasemes and idioms were treated separately. It turned out that the most frequent stylistic devices motivating the meaning of the whole are: metonymy, epithet, metaphor, simile and oxymoron in phrasemes; and metaphor, metonymy, epithet, oxymoron in idioms.
There are many scholars who regard idioms as the essence of phraseology and the major focus of interest in phraseology research. The structural criterion also brings forth pronounced distinctive features characterising phraseological units and contrasting them to free word-groups. Structural invariability is an essential feature of phraseological units, though, as we shall see, some of them possess it to a lesser degree than others. Structural invariability of phraseological units finds expression in a number of restrictions. As a rule, no word can be substituted for any meaningful component of a phraseological unit without destroying its sense. To carry coals to Manchester makes as little sense as ВХарьков со своим самоваром.The idiom to give somebody the cold shoulder means «to treat somebody coldly, to ignore or cut him», but a warm shoulder or acold elbow make no sense at all. The meaning of abee in somebody's bonnet was explained above, but abee in his hat or cap would sound a silly error in choice of words, one of those absurd slips that people are apt to make when speaking a foreign language.
So, the patterns on which the phraseological units are formed reveal the connection of the degree of their semantic motivation and stability with the variability of their structural patterns. Its stability is often supported by rhyme, synonymy, parallel construction, etc. Phrasemes are likely to have as much patterns as idioms, but many phrasemes are built on typical, non — numerous patterns, while idioms are more individual by their structure. In addition we may say the contextual approach to the study of phraseological units makes it possible to differentiate phrasemes and idioms — the units presenting different degrees of stability and semantic motivation of the whole by the meaning of the components.
References:
- Чиненова Л. А. Английская фразеология в языке и речи. Москва, 1986. Стр108
- A. V. Koonin. English phraseology. Theoretical course. Moscow 1981.
- A. V. Koonin, English — Russian Phraseological Dictionary. M. 1967.
